My High School Diet 6 During Coronavirus

It's eclectic eats for Day 6 of my High School Meals Series. Today I picked up Mexican sweet bread called Conchas and a Chef's Salad. I consider this a lucky day indeed. I never know what is in store when I drive thru the  Grab & Go line to pick up grub at my local High School.

For this new Food Series, I gave myself the assignment to find out what High School kids are being fed during Covid-19. We here in Los Angeles care about the nutrition needs of young people.

I'll be sharing a different Breakfast and Lunch meal every few days. I think you'll be as surprised as I am of the good, the bad, and the ugly...oh boy.

Click on any photo to see larger.

These meals are Grab & Go from my local High School. I'm sure regular school cafeteria fare is different (better?) than the ones I am getting carryout at the drive-thru lane. You can click here to see the first meal I had at my neighborhood Grab & Go.

The GIF above is a drive-thru Susan Miller Dorsey High School's Grab & Go. 

There seem to be plenty of meal bags laid out on the tables and once I asked if they ever run out and the attendant replied emphatically "Never!"

Breakfast: Conchas Mexican Sweet Bread, Corn Muffin, Apple, Orange, and Milk (always Milk.)

This breakfast is more interesting than typical sugary donuts.

Mildly sweet and a bit dry this sweet bread is of the Mexican pastry variety.  Conchas is a tasty way to start the day.

Go to any Latin market and you will see these in the bakery department. I have found them at my local 99c Only Stores, too.

It's about the size of a hamburger bun. The white stripes on top are sweeter than the interior which makes a nice contrast and overall -- it is a good balance. It's a bit on the bland side but that's okay with me.

I think this is a Corn Muffin as there is no labeling on the package. Corn Muffin is a bit grittier than a cupcake probable due to the cornmeal base.

You can taste corn in the cake part and every once in a while I thought I got a chewy corn kernel. It is a sweet cornbread and more crumbly than a cupcake. The thin sticky-soft top seemed to hold most of the sugar sweetness. Overall I liked it.

Lunch: Chef Salad and Cookies.

I hit the jackpot today with a Chef Salad and Educational Snacks (cookies).

At almost 8 ounces this is a good-sized green salad with Turkey, Ham, and Swiss Cheese topped with a creamy Ranch Dressing.

Now the green part is just Iceberg lettuce and the label calls it a "Classic Salad" so I expect nothing less.

I like Iceberg for the crunchiness and an almost sweet (green) to a lightly bitter (white) range of chopped leaves. It is the kind of lettuce I grew up with and as far as I'm concerned it will never go out of style.

The segmented top to the salad holds small half-inch bars of lightly smoked ham and turkey.

The turkey is white meat and the ham is very lean. The texture is of real meat, not a processed ground and shaped type. It is a hearty and filling salad.

The Swiss Cheese is shredded and soft in texture and mild in flavor. I would have liked a more intense type of Swiss, but this is fine anyway.

And finally, you can mix in Ranch Dressing. The Ranch is thick and creamy with a slight onion and chive undertaste that comes thru the mayo and buttermilk base. It's a rich dressing and I liked it very much.

The ingredient list is a long one but this salad has everything in it.

If you're vegan then this salad is not for you, but I would line up at the Grab & Go  anytime for this old school Chef Salad

The Lunch Dessert is a bag of smart cookies called Dick & Jane Educational Snacks. They are tasty and crunchy. Not too sweet and similar to Animal Crackers or a mild vanilla wafer - nothing special, just a plain cookie.

I never heard of this brand, but you can click here to find out what Dick & Jane are all about. But basically, the cookies are nut-free (Dick is allergic to nuts,) low sugar. They are distributed through Amazon to the general public and I guess they have a contract with schools.

The cookies I got are a collection of English and Spanish words with the translated image on each cookie. There are other cookie themes like States & Capitals, Presidents, and Food & Nutrition.

They have nutrition and ingredients listed clearly on the package. And it doesn't look bad, mainly whole grain wheat and a few other ingredients including sugar, honey, eggs, whole milk, and sunflower oil.

For reviews or info about the purveyors of these food items you can check out Fooducate, just enter a product food name and see what pops up about it: https://www.fooducate.com/

And you can learn about Los Angeles Unified School District's Cafe LA (which supplies a lot of the packaged food) here: https://achieve.lausd.net/cafela

And do check back in a few days for more of my latest food series High School Meals.

 Be safe & keep your distance!